Getting away with it

Several years ago, I was behind a gentleman at the grocery story.  He was fiddling with the eggs and muttering to himself.  He turned to me and exclaimed, "I don't see how they get away with it."  He went on to explain that he used to run a chicken farm and send eggs to the grocery store.  He always made sure he sent good eggs.  He started showing me how these eggs were small, cracked and not healthy looking.  I had never known that there was a difference.  I always thought an egg was an egg was an egg.  Later, some friends would give us two hens to keep in our back yard.  After a few weeks, we began eating out own, free range chicken eggs.  I could NOT believe the difference.  That man in the grocery store was right.  How in the world could the grocery stores claim that they were selling the same thing that I was growing in my back yard?  This morning, I happened to have one of our free-range eggs and a store bought egg and fried them up in the same pan.  You cannot tell much of a difference from the picture.  The one on the right is our egg.  It has a much deeper orange color and the sack around the yolk cooks up much differently.  I have had to spend some time understanding how differently the eggs cook up.  There is no comparison on taste.  Or course, the nutritional value is much different.
There is something in our culture that seems to train us to accept everything as the same.  When I was a paramedic, the only requirements were 'a pulse and a patch'.  Excellence in emergency medicine were not recognized.  In many ways, nursing is the same way.  With a shortage in nursing, you used to be able to get a job anywhere, any time.  My first job was offered to me over the phone with a hiring bonus.  Later on, I would go to work in an emergency department and learn that there are vast differences in nursing.  Even after I gained some experience and confidence, my mentor would remind me that I was pretty good "For a nurse with 1 year of experience."  I would later have the privilege of working with a couple of very seasoned nurses, and realize the huge difference in nurses. They would end up leaving because excellence in nursing was, again, not rewarded (or even recognized).
So we go back to the big question:  How do they get away with it?  Why does mediocrity hold such a prevalent status?  I think that it has to do with two things.  The first is that we don't make a big effort and discernment.  We just take things at face value, and settle.  I think that it is a bit of laziness.  The second is that we don't want to threaten anyone.  If there is one thing that my experiences over the past couple of years.  Very, very few people want to be confronted with concerns or issues.  I am certainly guilty of that.  I went to great lengths to keep people from being able to tell me where I was going wrong.  It is far easier to blame someone else when things are not going well.  It is excruciating to look at your own part of it.
I think this is the biggest reason people keep getting away with it.  We don't love each other enough to tell the truth to each other.  Worse than that, we don't trust each other enough to listen.  All truth needs to be spoken in love for it to be heard.  I have learned this the hard way.
So, now that I know the difference in so many things in my life, I struggle some days.  Comparing the way things are to the way that they could be is hard.  Understanding what part I play in all things is even harder.  We bought 4 more chicks to give us more eggs.  Perhaps we can make a little progress one egg at a time.